Morning, Silver! Wondering about something, now the Phoenicians of what's now Lebanon had settled on the far coast of Ireland, maybe the Egyptians made it that far as well and the barghast legend is a spinoff especially the corpsepath dogs that would tie in Anubis (Enpu) guiding the soul to the underworld but safeguarding the physical body as well

LOL I'm spitballing on the Egyptian English theory, Silver, but when the tuatha de Danu landed in Eire they encountered a savage race of dark-skinned, dark-eyed, dark haired warriors in the north of the isle, they called them 'firbolg' or men of the bogs and the Phoenicians were traders and explorers

According to churchyard legend the first interred became the churchyard's guardian for eternity, so back in the day, the first to be buried was always a large black dog charged with frightening off trespassers. I know this custom was largely observed in the UK but have any of our UK kin ever encountered one of these guardians

I think they're called Barghasts in Gaelic

Great subject. Our group has had an encounter with black dogs. I had not heard that they were guardians of the church yard. This makes sense to me though. The church was across the street when the group seen them. The UK term sounds so much better then devil dogs. Yikes.DebRTPS

I know that giant black red-eyed dogs are part of the pantheon of phenomena in the Hockomock Swamp here in Massachusetts. Of course, just about every type of paranormal activity apparently goes on out there, so who knows.

Just a quick note for the Egyptian/Phoenician connection...
The Mediterranian was doing a lively trade with the British Isles for tin, going back maybe 3000 years or so, there would have been a bit of cultural exchange, and knowing sailors, some other exchanges as well, so myth certainly would have been known to both cultures.

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Posted 12 November 2010 - 03:32 AM

I know the legends, what are your opinions on these entities? Also known as Mauthe Doogs, Churchyard Grims and a variety of other names, they are best known in the British Isles as harbingers of death and other omens (sometimes good) - do you think they can have a presence in the states?

I'm curious to some opinions on these unsettling spirits, and experiences if any.

"Reality is the line where rival gangs of shamans fought to a standstill."